Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

I had a craving for steak so I went out last night the Beefeater restaurant in WGC. Treated myself to a 10oz rib eye that was cooked to perfection. Sooo full but it was totally worth it :)

Driving home my dash temp guage claimed it was -7 outside. I'm not quite sure it was that cold but it was definitely in the neighbourhood. I had the heating cranked up on high for most of the evening. The France v. Ireland 6 Nations match wasn't on when I got in - apparently it was cancelled 10 minutes before kick off. I felt for the crowd who must have frozen off several appendages in that stadium only to get told "Umm, sorry, we've actually noticed it's rather cold and the pitch is like concrete." Apparently it was also -7 there BUT with a wind chill of -11. o_0 I'm mildly gobsmacked that they didn't just cancel it earlier in the day.

Haven't done much today, watched the Wales v. Scotland game, which was excellent, and Time Team, which was adequate. Downloaded the latest episode of "Blue Bloods" but was disappointed with it. Not up to its usual high standard but still had some fun character moments. Spent some happy time blowing things up in Red Alert and chatting lots with halcyon_shift. 'Twas a good day :)

Busy old day today! Tackled the usual paper mountain that came in the morning post and thought as I looked at the three stacks of gold, pink and green forms, "Hah! Have that lot checked and logged by the day's end!" Foolish Mitchy! It seemed all the nurseries with 40+ children or huge dual nursery/support scheme claims posted their forms yesterday. Took me hours to do the checking! Literally, about four hours. It took two hours (admittedly with many, many interruptions - phones were busy this morning) just to open all the envelopes and sort out the forms into the relevant stacks. Bah! Ah well, I got one batch out and I'll get the other two done tomorrow morning. It never takes long to put the figures onto the spreadsheets, the sorting and checking are the longest bit of the job.

Of course, I might have got more done if I hadn't had an inadvertent two hour lunch break. I had to dash over to Watford to pick up two printers a fellow Herts CC employee was selling. One needs parts, the other is a fully working Epson colour printer, but needs ink. Paid a tenner for them both :) I figure even with the cost of the ink, I'll still be quids in because I rarely use the printer. It would be darn useful to have one handy though!

I had directions to the site where the seller worked but it was a bit of maze and I circled round a bit before finally homing in on the right building and, more importantly, approaching from the right direction to get the car through the very, very narrow entrance gates. Coming back, I thought I'd avoid the A414, which had shed loads of roadworks and I'd noticed on the way over that the way back looked like it was going to be very fraught. "Ah-hah!" I thought, happily, spotting a road sign, "I'll nip onto the M25 and zoom round to the A1(M). It'll be longer but quicker than sitting in traffic!" Well yes, it may well have been, but alas we'll never know as I managed to get totally confused and headed around the wrong way on the M25. *sighs*

In my head, you see, I work in Hertford which is east of WGC. And I'd headed South to get to Watford, right? Therefore, if I wanted to go around the M25 to the A1, I needed to go west, up the A1 to WGC and then east again to Hertford. Alas, my mental map had played me oh so very false. I hadn't headed south, I'd headed SOUTH WEST to Watford, and was actually WEST of WGC when I reached the M25. Therefore I should have gone clockwise and not anti-clockwise. D'oH! Luckily I realised something was wrong and was able to bail out at the second junction when I pieced it together. "Hang on! That sign mentions it's 20 miles to Heathrow. ......When I come from Heathrow, I go past Watford FIRST before I get to the A1M! Oh ****! I'm heading the wrong way!!"

Cue hasty retreat :P So yeh, longer lunch break than I wanted really but happily I'm only half an hour down for the week, having worked an extra half hour tonight, so I'll easily make it up.

Watched Arsenal lose the Champions League Final tonight when I got in. Terrific game but it was doomed the minute Arsenal's goalie was sent off in the first half. They could have won it though, had they converted several very good chances. Ah well. I do hope Thierry Henry stays at the club, he's such a joy to watch, and I'd like him to lead Arsenal to another final next year.

And there was RP. And Red Alert! I've rediscovered the joys of blowing things up in Red Alert. It's been a while but it's all coming back to me now! Hee! I'm easing myself in though and not doing the really, really hard maps until I'm feeling comfortable I've regained my Destructo-Fu :D

Oh and huge congrats to therealsherbs and annuala's little brother, both of whom successfully attended interviews today and got the jobs they were after. Hurrah to you both! :)